Psychosomatic
by Otte
Summary: The Sakuraba boy wasn't the most difficult case she'd faced in career, but he was far from the easiest. There were many things he was unwilling to talk about. It looked like she would have to piece the whole story together herself. Oneshot, pre-game


**Psychosomatic**_  
A speculative TWEWY oneshot by Otte _

Yasuko Itoi was not a woman who gave up on a case easily. She was a woman who dealt with children with depression, anger management, suicidal tendencies, psychotic tendencies – all the slight insanities that comes with living through such an awkward age. She'd help self-harmers move on with their lives, helped children with issues at home focus at school - children who'd faced things too horrific for most adults to deal with had blossomed under her care.

She loved her work, she loved to help young people move on, but this boy had her close to tearing her hair out.

"Neku, if you'd please remove the headphones so we can move on with the session?" Yasuko said exhaustedly. The boy before her didn't respond, his toes on her desk, leaning back and forth in his chair. The purple headphones were a new quirk, and she didn't know what to make of them. His mother had seemed near tears when she came to visit her last week – said her boy was pushing himself further and further away, she didn't know what to do, he barely spoke, he barely ate – the typical things the mothers of misfits had to deal with.

"Neku, are we not friends anymore? You said only a week ago that maybe you could consider me a friend," she continued persistently. The fourteen-year-old looked at the painting above her head, with an expression of impatience.

He almost looked like he was waiting for her to arrive, and Yasuko noted this. She doubted it was anything as serious as delusions; she was simply frustrated and felt like she needed to make some headway. Alternatively, it could indicate that Neku used the headphones to block out all other people in his life, to the point where it gave the effect that he didn't notice them. Slightly unusual, but it was similar to cases she'd faced before. She simply needed time to look more deeply into his psyche.

Yasuko always kept meticulous notes on her patients, and after three sessions she usually pulled out enough information for one or two pages of notes, at least. Yet her notes on the Sakuraba boy were painfully short.

_Passive aggressive, shows severe lack of empathy. Slight anorexic tendencies? Loves art, responds well to music. _

She bit her lip – she could do with crossing out the 'well' in that last statement. Music seemed to be pushing him further away from the world now.

Hoping that perhaps his expression would have changed, she glanced back up at him. Neku was still staring distractedly above her head, bopping his head along to his music, fingers toying with the mp3 player around his neck.

"Can I ask what you're listening to?" she asked.

Neku hit the volume button pointedly on his mp3 player and Yasuko could faintly hear music from his headphones – sounded like some new techno whaty-what they'd been playing at AMV so persistently for the last month. She didn't really like techno music.

"That's not what I meant, Neku," she said wearily, leaning back on her chair. She was okay, she could handle this. Neku had faced some trauma in the past few months, she couldn't expect a swift recovery. Things always got worse before they got better with cases like this. She just wished she could get him to talk; it was so sudden for him to turn silent.

"Those headphones look expensive. But I haven't seen them about anywhere," she continued, determined to at least get one word out of them this session, "Where did you buy them?"

Neku glanced over at her and she smiled warmly, glad that he was at least beginning to acknowledge her presence.

"Hideyuki," he said with a frown, indicating that he didn't want to talk about it; he'd never want to talk about it, thank you goodnight. Yasuko leant back, making sure to keep her palms exposed – body language was important, and nodded. Sorry Neku, but I have to make you talk about it, my job is to make people talk about things they don't want to talk about, she thought. Neku raised her eyebrows at her, clearly reading her expression.

This was always a difficult stage, the one where they would rather do anything but talk. She preferred the later stages, when she became the one they would talk to because they wanted to talk to somebody who would understand, and somebody who wouldn't make it difficult in their everyday life for them.

"Ah, yes, your friend. Have you been over his house recently?" she asked conversationally.

"No," he spat, wrinkling his nose in disgust at her. She only regarded him calmly – she was making progress at least. It was slow, but Yasuko was prepared to be persistent.

"You didn't take them from his house," she observed, and Neku snorted derisively at her. She only smiled in response and took a sip from the glass of water in front of her. Neku simply glared at his and folded his arms.

"Then what was it, Neku?" she asked.

He didn't respond for a moment or two, and simply toyed with his mp3 player. She knew the words were on the tip of his tongue though, his posture had changed.

"His will. The note. Duh," Neku muttered, glaring at her and daring to say anything. She decided to not for the time being, and simply wrote it down.

_Headphones left in suicide note._

Teenaged suicide wasn't something she was unfamiliar with – it was, tragically, more common than most people would like to think these days. Perhaps that view was only because she so often dealt with teenagers who had these issues.

Neku put one hand to his headphones and began bopping his head along to his music, and she repressed a sigh. This session wasn't entirely the success she'd been hoping for after last week – last week he'd been much more amiable. Then again, golden week had recently ended. She could put his lack of conversation down to the stress of the new school year.

"How's school, Neku?" she asked, knowing well that she was going into very dangerous territory by asking a question like that. All young people had problems at school at some point or another; it was always a very tender subject and one could never guess how the patient would react. Neku seemed rather calm, if sullen, so she doubted she'd receive an answer too severe.

"Fine," he hissed, the venom in his tone indicating very easily that it was not fine. Once again, Yasuko, you were wrong, why did you pick this job again?

"Neku you don't sound fine. Going back to school's prompted a change in behaviour. And to be blunt with you, I know you're not telling me the whole story."

"I'm not."

"Then care to share?"

"No."

Yasuko rested her chin on her wrist, staring at him expectantly. He fidgeted slightly under her gaze, and she knew he was going to crack soon enough. He glanced about the room and fiddled with his mp3 player more, but there were cracks in the ice around him, and the truth would start leaking out soon enough.

"I don't want to go somewhere where I'm forced to deal with those idiots. They're so damn stupid. They just drag me down. I don't need them," he growled, his fingers digging into his arms and his muscles tensing.

_Shows trouble dealing with peer-group. Could be linked to Hideyuki's suicide. Could be sheer misanthropy._

"Now not all people are bad, Neku. Hideyuki wasn't a bad person. I'm not a bad person," she said, smiling warmly at him, "Or at least I hope I'm not, I don't want to be the villain in your story Neku."

"Yeah I know, since you always try so hard to be the hero," he snapped, his words icy. Yasuko sighed.

Of course, she was always the villain at the start. She should have only mentioned Hideyuki really, just to get some more out about the boy. Hideyuki was clearly important, yet Neku would avoid talking about him entirely if given the slightest chance.

Neku stared up pointedly at the clock on the wall, and Yasuko glanced up at it herself.

"Well, I suppose you'd better go now Neku, your mother is probably waiting for you outside," she said, but Neku was already up and walking out, those damn headphones still clamped over his ears.

Yasuko sat and read through her notes, trying to understand more about the lost boy before her.


End file.
